- Government Securities Account for 99.30% of GH¢3.52 billion GFIM Turnover
Trading activity on the Ghana Fixed Income Market strengthened sharply on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, as heavy demand for Treasury bills lifted total turnover to GH¢3.52 billion from GH¢2.36 billion in the previous session.
The GH¢1.15 billion session-on-session increase represented growth of 48.79%, while the number of transactions rose from 366 to 620. The expansion was therefore supported by both larger overall demand and broader trading activity.
However, the average value per transaction declined from approximately GH¢6.46 million to GH¢5.67 million. This suggests that the increase in market activity involved more transactions of relatively smaller average size, even though several exceptionally large trades continued to shape the market.
Treasury bills were the principal source of the rise. Turnover in the short-term government securities market more than doubled from GH¢970.94 million on October 26 to GH¢2.23 billion, representing an increase of 129.48%.
Bills consequently accounted for 63.36% of the market’s total traded volume, overtaking government bonds issued under the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme as the dominant asset class.
Investor interest was overwhelmingly concentrated in 364-day instruments, which generated approximately GH¢2.19 billion, equivalent to 98.07% of total Treasury-bill turnover. The 91-day and 182-day segments recorded substantially lower volumes of GH¢29.32 million and GH¢13.61 million, respectively.
The most actively traded bill was the instrument maturing on April 12, 2027. It recorded GH¢631.24 million across four transactions at a closing yield of 5.94% and a closing price of GH¢97.35.
That single instrument represented 28.33% of all Treasury-bill trading and nearly 18% of total market turnover.
Another GH¢505 million was traded in the bill maturing on May 3, 2027, at a closing yield of 6.37%. The May 10, 2027 bill contributed GH¢234.83 million at 6.56%, while the October 4, 2027 instrument recorded GH¢218.79 million at a substantially higher yield of 9.40%.
The yield progression across maturities illustrates the compensation investors continue to demand for holding government paper for longer periods. Near-term bills were traded at yields below 5%, while instruments approaching one year to maturity generally attracted yields of between 8% and 9%.
The preference for 364-day securities is particularly significant. Investors appear willing to extend beyond the shortest Treasury instruments, but their demand remains concentrated within the portion of the yield curve that offers predictable maturity and limited duration exposure.
That positioning may reflect confidence in Ghana’s near-term macroeconomic stabilisation while preserving flexibility against inflation, interest-rate and fiscal risks beyond one year.
Domestic Debt Exchange Programme bonds remained the second-largest market segment, generating GH¢1.26 billion from 78 transactions. The volume declined by 9.43% from GH¢1.39 billion in the previous session but still accounted for 35.70% of total turnover.
Activity within the DDEP segment was highly concentrated. The February 2029 bond generated GH¢525.30 million across 51 transactions and closed at a yield of 14.04%. The February 2032 bond followed with GH¢479.34 million from 15 trades, closing at 14.75%.
Together, these two securities represented 80.03% of DDEP bond turnover. When the GH¢206.74 million traded in the February 2027 bond is included, the three instruments accounted for 96.50% of the segment.
This concentration shows that liquidity across the restructured bond curve remains uneven. Investors are focusing on selected maturities where transaction depth, pricing visibility and the prospect of finding counterparties are stronger.
The DDEP yield curve also retained its upward slope. The February 2027 bond closed at 10.87%, compared with 14.04% for the February 2029 bond, 14.53% for the February 2030 instrument and 15.57% for the February 2037 security.
Such a curve indicates that investors continue to require a meaningful premium for longer exposure to sovereign credit and interest-rate uncertainty. Although Ghana’s macroeconomic environment has improved, the pricing shows that the market has not eliminated longer-term fiscal and reinvestment risks.
Trading in newly issued government bonds increased nearly sevenfold to GH¢8.15 million from GH¢1.18 million. The seven-year bond maturing in March 2033 dominated the segment with GH¢5.90 million and closed at a yield of 12.30%.
The four-year bond maturing in September 2030 recorded GH¢2.25 million at 12.02%. While the sharp percentage increase was notable, new government bonds still represented only 0.23% of total market turnover.
Old government bonds attracted just GH¢45,000 across two transactions. The instruments produced unusually high closing yields of 31.08% and 37.33%, reflecting their limited liquidity, short remaining maturity and instrument-specific pricing conditions rather than the broader sovereign yield curve.
Sell-and-buyback transactions rose from GH¢4.14 million to GH¢22.34 million, an increase of 439.11%. Most of that activity was concentrated in the February 2031 DDEP bond, which generated GH¢12.93 million, and the February 2030 instrument, which recorded GH¢8.94 million.
The increase points to stronger use of government securities for short-term liquidity management. It also demonstrates the importance of an active repurchase market in allowing institutions to raise cash without disposing of their bond holdings permanently.
Non-government instruments remained marginal. Corporate bond turnover stood at GH¢2.24 million, led by a Ghana Cocoa Board bond maturing in August 2027, which accounted for GH¢1.65 million. Commercial-paper activity fell by 80.96% to GH¢197,777, while no transactions were recorded in green and sustainable bonds.
Overall, direct government securities accounted for 99.30% of total market turnover. The concentration confirms that the GFIM remains predominantly a sovereign debt market, with corporate issuers still struggling to achieve comparable liquidity.
The near-term outlook is likely to remain supportive of Treasury bills as investors seek liquidity, short duration and clearer price discovery. Yet the strong concentration in 364-day instruments and selected DDEP maturities means the rise in turnover should not automatically be interpreted as broad-based market depth.
The next test will be whether improving confidence can spread demand across the sovereign curve and into corporate, commercial-paper and sustainable-finance instruments. Until then, government securities will continue to define both liquidity and pricing across Ghana’s fixed-income market.
